Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-20
THANKSGIVING.
Edward Everett bale on the Nations
ThanksgiVing-Why Americans Love
to Observe the Day.
The Famous Preacher and Author Makes
q Brief but Eloquent Thanks
giving Sermon.
copyrighted 1857 by S. S. Mcclure

reason.
! The fathers of New England, hemmed
in between q wilderness and the sea,
watched their doubtful crops in anxious
memories of other years of famine.
When they found that once more there
was fish enough, and pork enough, and
corn and beans and pumpkins and
squashes and turnips enough, to carry
them through the winter, they met to
thank God, knowing full well how
many hazards they had passed through.
For those days, as compared
with to-day, were days of pinching pow
erty. The New England historian, DR..
Palfrey, says, with a certain dryness,
which shows probably some personal
preferences: "Baked beans point to the
time when it was desirable to make the
most of the commonest vegetable, by
fayoriDg it with the flesh of the common
est animal"
All this is happily changed. For the
world, indeed, the old peril of famine is
well nigh forgotten. Aud why? The
American of to-day gives thanks that
famine is well nigh impossible. He should
certainly consider the reason.
First of all, he remembers that he is no
hundred square miles, or the fishing voy-
age of single summer. Thanks to the
Providence of God as it has worked in
history, and to the work of brave men
who believed they were children of God,
the petty colonies which were thus de-
scribed are now the nation. OF that ma
ton, the meanest citizen, the most fool
ish, the weakest and the poorest, has
every right and privilege before the law
which belongs to the strongest, the rich
est and the wisest, though he were born
in the purple of luxury. To the
widows son of the poorest citizen OF that
nation, then, there will come his daily
bread, in answer to his daily prayer,
though it come from the milling of Cali
fornia wheat, CT maybe the salmon
caught at the falls Of the Spokane, with
out let or hindrance from any power of
earth. If there is food in plenty in one
region, as by the fall Of an avalanche
down mountain, it will certainly seek
in another region. And this the Ameri-
can bow and girl owes to the good ProVi-
dence, and to the brave men who made
this country one, and have kept it one.
1t is too much the blindness of our
time to speak as if such simple business
as daily food came to US as q matter of
course. There is, indeed, a careless
habit in which Americans speak, as if, of
course, because they are Americans they
have everything without so much as ask
ing for it. Fourth Of July orators and
street-corner braggarts, alike, talk of the
natural products Of this country almost
in the tone of the emigrauts, who expect
to pick up a doubloon upon the
sidewalk. One is tempted to ask such
brsggerts why the country did not pro-
duce such wealth one hundred years ago,
or two hundred years ago? Why was
Dakota then s desertP Why were the
hills of Alabama only hiding place of d
few thousand Greek Indians? Why did
they not forge the iron under their feet?
Why did not the Iroquois inWestern New
York pick from their trees the peaches and
the pears such as have been growing
there this autumn?
The answer is this. All the wealth of
America comes to her from the work of
her men and women. The victory which
yields 1t is their victory; it is the victory
of spirit copquering matter. 1t comes in
the daily miracle OF daily life, where chill
dren of God, led by God, taught by God,
alive IN His life, and fellow workmen
with Him, carry out His designs and
subdue the earth. 1t is neither
sensible nor grateful to speak OF
teeming granaries, of increasing trade,
of new mines, of oil, Of iron, or Of
gas, as If these things we're wealth in
themselves. They are only wealth when
man strikes the rock and it's waters flow
And this man must be, not the savage
man, who cares only for his own personal
appetite; it must be man, the child of
God, seeking future better than to-day,
determined TO bring in noble. life than
that which he lives in. And this man
must be free; he must enjoy the privi-
leges of open promotion ne must then
have fit and generous education, and he
must live with all the projections of law.
In historical fact, the treasures Of
America were hardly discerned before the
American revolution and the establish
ment of the states in the GROWING work
Of the constitution of the United States
secured this freedom, this open promo
ton, and the work with God of every
child OF God. Where were the great
American Inventions before 1775? Where
were the argosies of wheat, feeding
half the world? Where was the
boosted wealth of mines, where the
rivers Of oil, which go to make up our
wealth to-day? II was not till the south
ern states were free that there was life
enough or intelligence enough in them to
discover the matchless wealth of the
phosphates which men trod under their
feet, and the increase, almost fabulous of
their material prosperity, which has fol-
lowed on the war, is not more remarka-
BILE than the like increase Of the prosper
ity Of the whole nation which followed
on the emancipation of the aristocratic
rule of Epgland.
TIE fool who stops st fountain In Lin
coin or Prospect Park and drinks when he
is thirsty, goes away without a thought
that his draught has cost him nothing
In truth, it required the wealth of the
city OF Chicsgo or of the city of Brooklyn,
it required skillful engineering, it re-
CURED the work and the labor of thou
sands upon thousands Of men before he
could drink that cup of water. 1t may
De that another fool, IS he sits st his
Thanksgiving fesst to-day, forgets how
many thousands of men have bad to
work together in q highly organized |
system of agriculture, maDufacture
and commerce before he could er iov these |
Injuries. But it is neither of the sc fools !
who are reading these words. Those of |
US who give any thought to the life which |
we are leading know that we enjoy these |
blessings because of the cooperation, |
under law, in hopeful and affectionate |
faith Of mill ms of mon and xuono, W.